If This Has An Ounce Of Truth…
From the LA Times:
CIA assassination program had been outsourced to Blackwater, ex-officials say
Something inside me says it’s true. Of course, people will tell me “I want to believe it is true” because of my dislike of the G.W. Bush presidency — but that is not the case. I think G.W. Bush often did things he thought was for the best — I feel he was led by bad advisers and didn’t have the ability to discern how bad the advice he was given actually was. I don’t think he would necessarily have known of this. But if there is just an ounce of truth to this story, the implications of it are tremendous.
According to the article, “The North Carolina-based company was given operational responsibility for targeting suspected terrorist commanders and was awarded millions of dollars for training and weaponry, but the program was canceled before any missions were conducted, the two officials said.” Even if nothing was done, the fact that this was considered acceptable makes me wonder what else has been outsourced to Blackwater. What else has it been doing in Iraq?
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Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11 of the Constitution says this would be constitutional, if it were congressionally approved of course — Letters of Marque and Reprisal
I was going to blog about this… Glad you did.
Of course, whether or not it is “Constitutional” is beside the point. If indeed something like this is “Constitutional,” then the thing should be burned.
The Articles of Confederation were better than the Constitution, but we needn’t burn the latter document. Rather, returning to it would be a step in the right direction.
Congressman Ron Paul’s September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001 and Air Piracy Reprisal and Capture Act of 2001 would have provided an appropriate, constitutional response to 9/11, rather than the inappropriate, unconstitional wars that President Bush initiated and President Obama has continued.
Henry,
Michael I,
Blackwater is a faith-based institution. While there is concern about the CIA contracting its assassination programs to private sector organizations, there is a further problem that bears directly on the nature of “faith” itself.
To what extent should the U.S. government allow the “sentiments of faith” to impact public policy? What is the “faith” that possesses the Evangelical sensibility? Can it be examined and made subject to critical evaluation? Is it nothing more than spiritual narcissism? What precisely are the “sentiments of faith”? Are they mere feelings? What does it mean when they say they “spoke to God.? How does all this square with the Calvinistic notion of the Elect?
The more I learn about Erik Prince the more I wonder what is going on at a deeper level? I’m afraid this particular news story, while disturbing enough, has only bubbled to the surface from something much deeper and more ugly.
Henry – DemocracyNow.org has been reporting on Blackwater for years now. It really is a sinister corporation and the fact that the u.s. government has moved into using a privatized, unaccountable, mercenary military force to “supplement” its dwindling, “real” military, is unbelievable. But it’s been happening. Blackwater has been responsible for massacres. Its founder and former CEO, Erik Prince, is a recent convert to Catholicism who has a traditional Latin Mass celebrated at the headquarters regularly. He sends out religious reflections to Blackwater employees. He considers himself on a mission to eradicate Islam. Many of Blackwater’s employees share Prince’s perverse version of the Christian faith. As if the conduct of the Iraq War has not been shadowy enough…
Gerald, I was writing my comment as you posted yours… I agree with you about Erik Prince.
Not to mention that fact that Erik Prince is under investigation for murder.
Gerald and Michael,
Right, I know of Blackwater for years and its problems; however, I think this goes a step further when talking about assassination programs, and of course, showing how we allow businesses become the means for such programs. The implications of this go in many fields of thought and concern, as you have both said.
Why as Catholics does it matter if it’s Constitutional or not? For my money Black Water has nothing to do with the Gospel and nothing to do with faith… nor Catholic Social Teaching.
Not to oversimplify the issue, but Scripture, Tradition, and Catholic Social Teaching should trump any secular text–including the Constitution.
Wait a minute… why am I telling you this… you all know this anyway…
d
Of course, whether or not it is “Constitutional” is beside the point.
Excactly – this reminds me of Scalia claiming it is constitutional to execute innocent people. I find it a little disturbing that so many Catholics are willing to use a “magical” constitution to gloss over basic issues of right and wrong.
But outsourcing saves the taxpayers money.
MM… I think the sad truth is a lot of Catholics–a lot of Christians for that matter–don’t want to admit that they are Americans before being members of God’s Kingdom. Or, they don’t realize that they’ve blurred the lines between patriotism and the Kingdom of God.
No one wants to hear that… but it seems to be true…
It’s like with the current healthcare debacle. The US Bishops say, “Healthcare is a right of all people!” But instead of the Church solving this problem we look… as we so often do… to the government to fix it or us…
SIGH
David
Kurt – And creates jobs!
Kurt, Michael I,
And outsourcing gets the government off our backs!
Kurt, Michael I,
And allows for the flourishing of “biblical capitalism!!!!!!!!!!!!”
THIS IS THE KEY.
But before you dismiss the “Constitutionality” element, it is worth noting that at a bear minimum a secular leader should uphold the secular document he has sworn to defend.
Did Congress authorize this behavior? Did anyone in the Bush administration care? Do conservatives care about the Constitution, as long as it’s their guy bending the rules?
You can’t look at this in isolation from the conservative response to Obama’s healthcare initiative.
I simply can’t guess how a conservative will react to any given policy, except to say that if a republican does it, they support it, if a democrat does it they hate it.
The dark and shady world of the shadow wars is an unpleasant business, but it deserves being addressed with a seriousness above that of “blackwater is evil”.
Are you guys going to check out Inglorious Bastards? It looks like a choice flick to me.
Matt —
The dark and shady world of the shadow wars is an unpleasant business…
Not simply unpleasant, but profoundly immoral.
…but it deserves being addressed with a seriousness above that of “blackwater is evil”.
You are absolutely right. For gestures toward serious critique, I suggest you read the post above again, as well as this particular comment. For a more detailed treatment of the problem with Blackwater, see the Democracy Now website and the profile of Erik Prince in Newsweek about a year ago. Things should clear right up for ya.
Michael I., I trust you would agree that the constitution has been smoking since at least 1973.
Blackwater is the planned parenthood of the right.
Ben I agree with point 1. Not sure about point 2, i.e. what the point of that comparison might be.
Erik Prince sees himself as a modern-day Knight Templar. (That’s a Catholic religious order of the medieval period that was quasi-military and whose primary mission was to protect the “holy places.” They were fiercely anti-Muslim and terribly hated by most of the population of the Muslim Middle East because of their brutality. It doesn’t do much for the reputation of the United States for the nation’s chief private security force in that part of the world to be equating itself with the Templars.)
http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/knights-of-templarknights-of-maltablackwater-erik-prince/
http://www.takimag.com/site/print/3852/
http://www.newsweek.com/id/43361